JP2016024648A - Touch panel device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a touch panel device configured to require no battery for a wireless electronic pen.SOLUTION: A touch panel device 1 includes: a capacitive touch panel 11 to be touch-input with an electronic pen 30; and a power supply section 20 which supplies electric power for driving the electronic pen from detection electrode 18, 19 on the touch panel, via at least two drawing drive electrodes 40a, 40b arranged in the electronic pen, to the electronic pen. Preferably, the power supply section drives the detection electrodes on the touch panel so that a positive electrode and a negative electrode corresponding to a distance between the drive electrodes may appear.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 5

Description

  The present invention relates to a touch panel device, and more particularly, to a touch panel device with an electronic pen that forms a digitizer.

  This type of touch panel device is widely used for presentations, meetings, and the like. For example, the touch panel device has a touch panel provided integrally with a display panel that displays video. When the display panel is touched with a user's finger or a pen-type input device (also referred to as an electronic pen), a figure such as a handwritten line or a handwritten character or symbol corresponding to the touch position can be displayed on the display panel.

There are two types of electronic pens: a wired system that is connected to a cord drawn from the touch panel device and a wireless method that does not use a cord. In the case of the wired system, power is supplied to the electronic pen through a cord. However, in the case of the wireless system, a structure in which power is supplied from a battery in the electronic pen is known.
Here, for example, Patent Document 1 discloses a non-contact power feeding technique using an electric field coupling method. Specifically, the planar electrode for power transmission and the planar electrode for power reception are opposed to each other, and power can be supplied by capacitive coupling of these.

JP 2012-34447 A

  By the way, although it is useful if a battery is unnecessary in a wireless electronic pen, Patent Document 1 does not disclose such a technique.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a touch panel device that can dispense with a battery in a wireless electronic pen.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, a first technical means of the present invention includes a capacitive touch panel that is touch-inputted with an electronic pen and at least two drawing drive electrodes provided on the electronic pen. And a power supply unit that supplies power for driving the electronic pen from the detection electrode on the touch panel to the electronic pen.

  According to a second technical means, in the first technical means, the power supply unit drives the detection electrode on the touch panel so that a positive electrode and a negative electrode corresponding to a distance between the drive electrodes appear. It is a feature.

  According to a third technical means, in the first or second technical means, the power supply unit drives a detection electrode on the touch panel located around the electronic pen.

  According to a fourth technical means, in any one of the first to third technical means, the touch panel outputs a synchronization signal from the touch panel to the electronic pen in order to recognize a signal from each drive electrode, The synchronization signal is output to the electronic pen as a signal separate from the signal for driving the electronic pen, or is output to the electronic pen as a single signal including the signal for driving the electronic pen. It is characterized by.

  According to the present invention, since the detection electrode on the touch panel supplies power to the electronic pen, it is possible to provide an electronic pen that does not require a battery even in a wireless system.

It is a figure which shows the example of an external appearance structure of the input display apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the functional structural example of the touchscreen apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is a block diagram of the touch panel of FIG. It is a block diagram of the electronic pen by the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is the schematic of the non-contact electric power feeding by the electric field coupling system of this invention. It is a sequence diagram for demonstrating the flow of the process in 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a sequence diagram for demonstrating the flow of the process in 2nd Embodiment of this invention.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the touch panel device of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an external configuration example of an input display device according to the present invention. The input display device includes an electronic pen and a touch panel device, and the liquid crystal monitor 1 corresponds to the touch panel device of the present invention. The liquid crystal monitor 1 is, for example, a flat type (also referred to as a horizon style) in which the angle between the display screen and the ground plane of the liquid crystal monitor is about 0 °, or a standing style or pen writing style using the stand 2 on the back of the liquid crystal monitor. Is also applicable. In addition, the touch panel device according to the present invention may be a thin display device other than the liquid crystal monitor 1 or may use an organic EL panel, a plasma display, or a liquid crystal television as a monitor.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration example of the touch panel device according to the present invention.
The liquid crystal monitor 1 includes a control unit 10, a touch panel 11, a display panel 12, a touch panel control unit 13, a video processing unit 14, a synthesis unit 15, a storage unit 16, a power supply unit 20, and the like. Yes.
The control unit 10 is composed of a CPU for controlling the operation of the liquid crystal monitor 1, and loads various programs and data stored in, for example, the ROM of the storage unit 16 into the RAM. Execute.

The display panel 12 includes, for example, a rectangular display screen 12a configured with a liquid crystal panel.
The touch panel 11 is provided integrally with the display panel 12, and inputs the touch position (also referred to as touch coordinates) when the user touches the display screen 12a with the user's finger or the electronic pen 30 shown in FIG. It is a sensor for. As this sensor, for example, a capacitance type sensor that detects a position by detecting a change in capacitance between the fingertip and the conductive film can be adopted. As shown in FIG. For example, the X-axis electrode 18 and the Y-axis electrode 19 are divided into X-axis patterns 18a, 18b... And Y-axis patterns 19a, 19b. The X-axis electrode 18 and the Y-axis electrode 19 correspond to detection electrodes on the touch panel of the present invention.

  The touch panel control unit 13 includes a drive / detection unit 13a, a calculation unit 13b, and a processing unit 13c. When touching the touch panel 11 with a fingertip, the driving / detecting unit 13a drives one electrode (for example, the X-axis electrode 18) on the touch panel 11 and detects touch coordinates with the other electrode (for example, the Y-axis electrode 19). The drive / detection unit 13a can drive the drive electrodes in the wired electronic pen. When the touch / contact 11 is touched with the wired electronic pen 30 shown in FIG. The touch coordinates are detected by both the X-axis electrode 18 and the Y-axis electrode 19. These detection results are output to the calculation unit 13b. Note that when the tip of the drive electrode of the electronic pen is brought within, for example, about 15 mm from the touch panel (also referred to as a hover operation), the position connecting the tip and the touch panel at the shortest distance can be detected as the touch coordinates of the electronic pen.

  The calculation unit 13b performs a predetermined calculation process on the detection result of the fingertip or the electronic pen 30 touching the touch panel 11, and obtains the touch coordinates of the fingertip or the electronic pen 30 and the like. The obtained touch coordinates and the like are sent to the processing unit 13c, and information on the touch operation is created. The generated touch operation signal is output to the combining unit 15. Note that writing pressure information and information on the side switches 35 and 36 of the electronic pen 30 shown in FIG. 3 can be input to the processing unit 13c.

The video processing unit 14 performs image processing such as resolution conversion and gamma correction on the video signal input to the liquid crystal monitor 1 and outputs the processed video signal to the combining unit 15.
The synthesizer 15 synthesizes the input video signal and the touch operation signal, and performs a process of superimposing the touch operation information on the input video. In the case where the touch operation information is not displayed, only the input video image processed by the video processing unit 14 is displayed on the display screen 12a.

(First embodiment)
FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of the electronic pen according to the first embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 4A, the electronic pen 30 of the present embodiment is a wireless system that does not use a cord, and has a cylindrical casing 34 that is gripped by a user's finger, for example. A pen tip 37 used for input to the liquid crystal monitor 1 is provided at the tip of the housing 34, and the tip of the pen tip 37 is tapered and formed in a circular cross section, for example.

Side switches 35, 36 that can be pressed down are provided on the surface of the housing 34, and by pressing the side switches 35, 36, the touch operation of the pen tip 37 functions as, for example, a right mouse click or an eraser, for example. Can do.
Here, as shown in FIG. 4B, for example, two drive electrodes 40 a and 40 b for detecting the position of the pen tip in the liquid crystal monitor 1 are provided inside the pen tip 37. The drive electrodes 40a and 40b correspond to the drawing drive electrodes of the present invention. For example, the drive electrodes 40a and 40b are arranged in parallel at symmetrical positions across the central axis of the pen tip 37, and are connected to the amplifiers 39a and 39b in the housing 34, respectively.

  When the touch panel 11 is touched with the electronic pen 30 (including the hover operation, the same applies hereinafter), the two drive electrodes 40a and 40b are driven separately, for example (also referred to as a sequential drive method). Specifically, first, one drive electrode 40a is driven and the position of the drive electrode 40a is detected by the X-axis electrode 18 or the Y-axis electrode 19 on the touch panel 11, and then the other drive electrode 40b is driven to detect this position. The position of the drive electrode 40 b is detected by the X-axis electrode 18 and the Y-axis electrode 19. Since the rotation angle around the central axis of the pen tip 37 can be calculated based on the position of each drive electrode 40a, 40b, lines with different line widths can be input to the display screen 12a.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of contactless power feeding by the electric field coupling method of the present invention. The power supply unit 20 described with reference to FIG. 2 has an oscillator 20 a and is connected to the electronic pen 30 via coupling capacitors 21 and 22.
The coupling capacitors 21 and 22 are configured such that a power transmission planar electrode connected to the oscillator 20a side and a power reception planar electrode connected to the electronic pen 30 side are opposed to each other, and power can be supplied by capacitive coupling thereof. The X-axis electrode 18 and the Y-axis electrode 19 described in FIG. 3 are used as a planar electrode for power transmission in addition to the detection electrode, and the drive electrodes 40a and 40b described in FIG. 4B are the drive electrodes for drawing. In addition, it is used as a planar electrode for receiving power.

According to the electric field coupling method, the power supply amount can be easily changed by changing the area of the planar electrode. Further, there is an advantage that there is no overheating at the time of inserting a foreign object as in the electromagnetic induction method, and the weight of the structure as in the electromagnetic resonance method is not increased.
Then, the power supply unit 20 drives the X-axis electrode 18 and the Y-axis electrode 19 so that a positive electrode and a negative electrode corresponding to the distance between the drive electrode 40a and the drive electrode 40b appear.

  More specifically, the drive electrodes 40a and 40b and the rectifying unit 43 are connected by the switches 44a and 45a shown in FIG. 5, and the X-axis electrode 18 and the Y-axis electrode 19 and the power supply unit 20 are connected by the switches 44b and 45b. When connected (power transmission mode), when the power supply unit 20 sets, for example, the odd-numbered X-axis patterns 18a, 18c, and 18e as the positive electrode and the even-numbered X-axis patterns 18b and 18d as the negative electrode, Power for driving the electronic pen is output from the electronic pen 30 to the electronic pen 30. For example, odd-numbered Y-axis patterns 19a, 19c, and 19e are set as positive electrodes, and even-numbered Y-axis patterns 19b and 19d are set as negative electrodes, and electric power for driving an electronic pen is also output from the Y-axis electrode 19. Also good.

The power supply unit 20 may drive only the X-axis electrode 18 and the Y-axis electrode 19 positioned around the pen tip 37 when the drive / detection unit 13 a can detect the position of the pen tip 37. . If power is supplied only to the periphery of the pen tip 37, it is not necessary to drive all the electrodes on the touch panel 11.
When the drive electrodes 40a and 40b and the rectifying unit 43 are connected by the switches 44a and 45a, for example, the positive power input to the drive electrode 40a and the negative power input to the drive electrode 40b are rectified by the rectifying unit 43 and fixed. After being adjusted to a constant voltage by the voltage unit 42, the voltage is supplied to the pen processing unit 38.

However, the electronic pen 30 of the present embodiment is a wireless system, and a synchronization signal is output from the touch panel 11 to the electronic pen 30 in order to recognize whether the touch panel 11 detects the fingertip or the electronic pen 30.
Specifically, as illustrated in FIG. 5, the electronic pen 30 includes a synchronization signal detection line 41 that connects the drive electrode 40 a and the pen processing unit 38.

  The synchronization timing with the pen processing unit 38 is generated by the arithmetic unit 13b described in FIG. 2, and the switches 44b and 45b are switched while the drive electrodes 40a and 40b and the rectifying unit 43 are connected by the switches 44a and 45a. When the X-axis electrode 18 or Y-axis electrode 19 is connected to the touch panel control unit 13 (synchronous transmission mode), the synchronization signal transmitted from the X-axis electrode 18 or Y-axis electrode 19 via the drive / detection unit 13a is For example, the signal is output to the pen processing unit 38 via the drive electrode 40a and the synchronization signal detection line 41.

  Next, the switches 44a and 45a are switched to connect the drive electrodes 40a and 40b and the pen processing unit 38 with the switches 44b and 45b connected to the X-axis electrode 18 and the Y-axis electrode 19 and the touch panel control unit 13 (Pen In the pen processing unit 38, the driving signal based on the frequency of the synchronization signal is sent to the drive electrodes 40a and 40b via the amplifiers 39a and 39b described in FIG. 4B. Output. Thereby, each drive electrode 40a, 40b drives, and the drive / detection part 13a can detect the position of the electronic pen 30 by the X-axis electrode 18 or the Y-axis electrode 19 on the touch panel 11.

FIG. 6 is a sequence diagram for explaining the flow of processing in the first embodiment of the present invention. First, the power supply unit 20 drives the X-axis electrode 18 and the Y-axis electrode 19 for a predetermined time (power transmission mode, steps S10 and S13). For example, a power supply pulse is supplied to the X-axis electrode 18 and the Y-axis electrode 19. Supply.
When the electronic pen 30 receives the power supply pulse via the drive electrodes 40a and 40b, power is supplied to the electronic pen 30 (step S11). The pen processing unit 38 executes the activation / initialization process of the electronic pen 30 when power is supplied for the first time and turns it on. When the power supply is continuously received, the pen processing unit 38 The on state is maintained (step S12).

Next, the drive / detection unit 13a drives the X-axis electrode 18 and the Y-axis electrode 19 for a predetermined time (synchronous transmission mode, steps S14 and S17). For example, a synchronization pulse separate from the power supply pulse Is supplied to the X-axis electrode 18 and the Y-axis electrode 19.
When the electronic pen 30 receives a synchronization pulse via the drive electrode 40a (YES in step S15), the pen processing unit 38 drives the drive electrodes 40a and 40b for a predetermined time (pen drive mode, steps S16 and S23). .

Subsequently, the drive / detection unit 13a detects signals from the drive electrodes 40a, 40b for both the X-axis electrode 18 and the Y-axis electrode 19 for a predetermined time (pen coordinate detection mode, steps S18, S19), and the drive electrodes 40a, When the position 40b can be detected, the calculation unit 13b obtains the touch coordinates of the electronic pen 30 and the like.
Next, the drive / detection unit 13a drives one electrode (for example, the X-axis electrode 18) for a predetermined time, and detects the touch coordinate of the fingertip for the predetermined time by the other electrode (for example, the Y-axis electrode 19) (finger touch coordinate detection mode). , Steps S20 and S21).

Thereafter, the calculation unit 13b outputs the touch coordinates of the electronic pen 30 and the touch coordinates of the fingertip to the processing unit 13c (step S22). When the positions of the drive electrodes 40a and 40b cannot be detected in the pen coordinate detection mode, the calculation unit 13b outputs only the touch coordinates of the fingertip to the processing unit 13c.
On the other hand, when the pen drive mode ends (YES in step S23), the electronic pen 30 enters a standby state until power is supplied (step S24).

(Second Embodiment)
FIG. 7 is a sequence diagram for explaining the flow of processing in the second embodiment of the present invention. In the first embodiment, the power supply pulse and the synchronization pulse are transmitted as separate signals. For example, when the synchronization pulse is formed long and can include the power supply pulse, the power supply is performed. The pulse for synchronization and the pulse for synchronization may be transmitted as a single signal.

The power supply unit 20 or the drive / detection unit 13a drives the X-axis electrode 18 and the Y-axis electrode 19 for a predetermined time (power / synchronous transmission mode, steps S30 and S33), for example, a pulse for both power supply and synchronization Is supplied to the X-axis electrode 18 and the Y-axis electrode 19.
When the electronic pen 30 receives this pulse via the drive electrodes 40a and 40b, electric power is supplied to the electronic pen 30 (step S31), and the pen processing unit 38 executes start-up / initialization processing of the electronic pen 30. The electronic pen 30 is turned on or maintained on (step S32), and the drive electrodes 40a and 40b are driven for a predetermined time (pen drive mode, steps S34 and S40). In addition, when this pen drive mode is complete | finished (YES of step S40), the electronic pen 30 will be in a standby state (step S41).

  After the drive / detection unit 13a detects signals from the drive electrodes 40a, 40b for both the X-axis electrode 18 and the Y-axis electrode 19 for a predetermined time (pen coordinate detection mode, steps S35, S36), the drive / detection unit 13a One electrode (for example, the X-axis electrode 18) is driven for a predetermined time, and the touch coordinates of the fingertip are detected for the predetermined time by the other electrode (for example, the Y-axis electrode 19) (finger touch coordinate detection mode, steps S37 and S38). And the calculating part 13b outputs the touch coordinate of the electronic pen 30, and the touch coordinate of a fingertip to the process part 13c (step S39).

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Liquid crystal monitor, 2 ... Stand, 10 ... Control part, 11 ... Touch panel, 12 ... Display panel, 12a ... Display screen, 13 ... Touch panel control part, 13a ... Drive / detection part, 13b ... Calculation part, 13c ... Processing part , 14 ... Video processing unit, 15 ... Synthesis unit, 16 ... Storage unit, 17 ... Bus, 18 ... X-axis electrode, 18a-18e ... X-axis pattern, 19 ... Y-axis electrode, 19a-19e ... Y-axis pattern, 20 ... Power supply unit, 20a ... Oscillator, 21, 22 ... Coupling capacitor, 30 ... Electronic pen, 34 ... Housing, 35, 36 ... Side switch, 37 ... Pen tip, 38 ... Pen processing unit, 39a, 39b ... Amplifier, 40a, 40b ... drive electrodes, 41 ... synchronous signal detection line, 42 ... constant voltage unit, 43 ... rectifier unit, 44a, 44b, 45a, 45b ... switch.

Claims (4)

A capacitive touch panel that is touch-inputted with an electronic pen;
And a power supply unit that supplies power for driving the electronic pen from the detection electrode on the touch panel via at least two drawing drive electrodes provided on the electronic pen. Touch panel device. The touch panel device according to claim 1,
The power supply unit drives a detection electrode on the touch panel so that a positive electrode and a negative electrode corresponding to a distance between the drive electrodes appear. The touch panel device according to claim 1 or 2,
The touch panel device, wherein the power supply unit drives a detection electrode on the touch panel located around the electronic pen. The touch panel device according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
The touch panel outputs a synchronization signal from the touch panel to the electronic pen in order to recognize a signal from each drive electrode, and the synchronization signal is a signal separate from the signal for driving the electronic pen. A touch panel device that is output to a pen or a single signal including a signal for driving the electronic pen.

Images